Well, last night I finally did it. I finally finished City of Ashes. Whew!

As I said at the end of my last post, I was fighting to make it past page 200. I am here to tell you now, that if you can get to somewhere around page 375 (out of 464) then you may end up wanting to read then next one. Now I am not going to lie. It took A LOT of effort to get to the point in this book where things start to get interesting and make you want more. A few little things to bullet point:

Most of the book seems to be made up of pointless run around that could have been left out in order to make the reader feel more satisfied.

The sexy aspect is still gross. Period. If you haven’t read the first one yet then I will leave it at that. If you have read the first one, then don’t get your hopes up. The tables don’t turn again. The situation hasn’t changed.

Jace, one of the main characters, gets a bit redundant and annoying by the time the book gets good and by then you have a hard time liking him at the end when you should. How many times does the author need to stress that he is arrogant, cocky, self absorbed, and very good looking? Seriously, we get it.

If you are looking for a climax that puts you on the edge of your seat, then push through to page 375ish. You won’t be disappointed.

Overall, I have to admit that if the 3rd book picks-up and continues the way the end of book 2 did, then I may have a different opinion of the series. By the end of this book it seems that the author has FINALLY found her voice in the writing and has really begun to grasp the story she had originally set out to write. Oddly enough she has created a phenomenon rarely seen in books and film; the second piece in the series is better than the first.

I have this problem with books I don’t like or find boring. I have this unexplainable need to finish them even if they are just awful or I can’t get into them. In fact I have a stack of books that about once a year I pick up each one of them and for a month or so try to force myself to plow through, eventually to put it back at the bottom of the pile for another day. And while a few are books that I grabbed off the shelf because their covers called to me, most of them are books that were suggested to me by trusted friends or colleagues or are prize winners and bestsellers that I felt were books I had to read to see what the hype was about. Sometimes this pile works out for the better. If it hadn’t been for my pile of unfinished reading I never would have given The Road a second chance, and now that I did, it is one of my favorite books. Unfortunately most of these books end up returning to the pile over and over again only to pushed off again for another day. Poor Jurassic Park has been returning to that pile every year since I bought it in 1993. I want to read it, I really do, but I just can’t get past page 75!

And this brings me to my current problem. The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare. I have two friends/colleagues who are just head over heels for this series. So when my Borders was going out of business I decided to purchase the first three in the series to see what all of the fuss was about. As I said these are people who’s literary judgement I hold in high regard, who have suggested other titles to me that I found to be exceptional and brilliant. So when they both insisted that I read this series I had no reason to doubt their suggestion.

If you are not familiar with this series here is a synopsis from the official website for the first book in the series:

When fifteen-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder — much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Clary knows she should call the police, but it’s hard to explain a murder when the body disappears into thin air and the murderers are invisible to everyone but Clary.

Equally startled by her ability to see them, the murderers explain themselves as Shadowhunters: a secret tribe of warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons. Within twenty-four hours, Clary’s mother disappears and Clary herself is almost killed by a grotesque demon.

But why would demons be interested in ordinary mundanes like Clary and her mother? And how did Clary suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like to know….

Sounds intriguing enough right? And don’t get me wrong the premise set up on the back of the book is enticing. But it stops there.

This book was terrible! The writing was mediocre at best, the social interaction between the characters is uncomfortable and unimaginative, and the “sexy” aspect that is toted on the cover by tween author Holly Black, is entertaining at best and down right nauseating by the end. (I will go into no more on that as not to spoil it for those of you who still wish to read it.)

Now this is just the first book. I bought the first three. My hope is that by the end of it all I will see what all the hype was about, but I am currently on page 200 of Book 2, The City of Ashes, and I have been on page 200 for about 3 weeks now. I really am trying, but this book has been sitting by my bedside for weeks and I keep opting to listen to old time radio shows instead of reading it. Hopefully this book is not going the way of Jurassic Park, and hopefully it gets better…I’ll keep you posted.

about

"In this world of numbness and information overload, the ability to feel... is a rare gift indeed."